Successor to Google’s Nexus 7 may bump display up to 1080p

The tablet is a modest success, and it appears Google will stick with Nexus.

The next Nexus 7 may increase the resolution of its display to 1080p and maintain the relationship between Asus and Google, according to a report from Digitimes. The follow-up has been rumored for some time, but now Digitimes suggests Google will tweak the device with updates while maintaining the starting $199 price.

Google scarcely promoted the Nexus 7’s IPS display, which was an impressive 7-inch 1280×800 and rivaled the screen of the Kindle Fire HD. If Google preserves the aspect ratio of the Nexus 7 in its follow-up, the new display would be 1728×1080; if it conforms to a standard HD display, 1920×1080. Digitimes also suggests Google and Asus may slim down the bezel surrounding the screen, which might allow an aspect ratio change.

Reports on sales of the first Nexus 7 have been rare outside of the ballpark figures from Asus CEO David Cheng suggesting Google had sold about three million units in the four months following its launch. Digitimes indicates Nexus 7 sales have remained steady and that six million units will have shipped by the end of January. Reports on the success of the Nexus 10, or a successor to it, have also been scarce.

Release dates for the new tablet were not forthcoming. Since the first Nexus 7 debuted at Google I/O in July of last year, we’d say it’s safe to expect its successor at the same event this year starting on May 15.

I read that term a lot when it comes to Nexus devices. I've seen ads for Nexus on TV. I've seen ads in magazines liked Wired. There were ads for it *on the front of Google, the top 3 most visited page on the planet*. Every tech blog or general new site review article (NYT, etc) mentions the Nexus.

I'm really not sure how that qualifies as scarcely promoted.

I have no issue with the devices at all, I have a Galaxy Nexus, but it doesn't deserve to be painted as some sort of underdog.

Maybe it's just me, but doesn't 1728x1080 seem kind of odd? I mean, 1920x1200 makes more sense, especially so it can actually display 1080p content. Kind of like how 720p content works on the Nexus 7 now, otherwise the Nexus 7 would have been 1152x720.

The current bezel size is just fine - I hope they don't make the same mistakes others are making. A higher-res display would be very nice, though - 216dpi is just about acceptable for text, but the serifs aren't completely sharp.

I would think 1920x1200 would be the likely resolution if it is "Full HD" and 16:10 aspect ratio.

Agreed.

Digitimes lists "Full HD" rather than stating a specific resolution... If we take the rumour at face value, it seems prudent to assume that the second-gen Nexus 7 will be either 1920x1200, which maintains the current 16:10 aspect ratio and fulfils "Full HD" requirements; or change to a 1920x1080 display at 16:9, probably by shedding some of the top/bottom bezel, which would also be in-line with the rumour.

Maybe it's just me, but doesn't 1728x1080 seem kind of odd? I mean, 1920x1200 makes more sense, especially so it can actually display 1080p content. Kind of like how 720p content works on the Nexus 7 now, otherwise the Nexus 7 would have been 1152x720.

I read that term a lot when it comes to Nexus devices. I've seen ads for Nexus on TV.

Good news then friend. It actually has been promoted pretty regularly on several channels I watch. I've seen most of these except for the more tutorial ones pretty often. The one that is being run the most right now is this one, though that is more of a Google search ad. It jumps out for it's use of the Nexus 7 and showing it multiple times.

I haven't seen anything at all for the Nexus 10 or the Nexus 4 though. The latter probably because of the lack of stock they've had, though I have no idea about the former.

(Edit) Apparently I can't link right to the Nexus 7 section of that link. It's under Tablets/Nexus 7. (/edit)

I read that term a lot when it comes to Nexus devices. I've seen ads for Nexus on TV. I've seen ads in magazines liked Wired. There were ads for it *on the front of Google, the top 3 most visited page on the planet*. Every tech blog or general new site review article (NYT, etc) mentions the Nexus.

I'm really not sure how that qualifies as scarcely promoted.

I have no issue with the devices at all, I have a Galaxy Nexus, but it doesn't deserve to be painted as some sort of underdog.

I thought those ads were for Google Now? They did prominently display a Nexus 7.

I read that term a lot when it comes to Nexus devices. I've seen ads for Nexus on TV. I've seen ads in magazines liked Wired. There were ads for it *on the front of Google, the top 3 most visited page on the planet*. Every tech blog or general new site review article (NYT, etc) mentions the Nexus.

I'm really not sure how that qualifies as scarcely promoted.

I have no issue with the devices at all, I have a Galaxy Nexus, but it doesn't deserve to be painted as some sort of underdog.

The full line from the article is

Quote:

Google scarcely promoted the Nexus 7’s IPS display...

They're saying they didn't promote the quality of the screen that much, not the entire device.

I read that term a lot when it comes to Nexus devices. I've seen ads for Nexus on TV. I've seen ads in magazines liked Wired. There were ads for it *on the front of Google, the top 3 most visited page on the planet*. Every tech blog or general new site review article (NYT, etc) mentions the Nexus.

I'm really not sure how that qualifies as scarcely promoted.

I have no issue with the devices at all, I have a Galaxy Nexus, but it doesn't deserve to be painted as some sort of underdog.

Well - when they have rough estimates on figures like 3 million units in a quarter @ $200 while the iPad is selling at a rate of 22 million+ units per quarter at a higher price point -- based on the fact that ALL OF THIS is nothing more than speculation (the article included = read filler) then yeah it's scarce.

And Yes - I've seen many of the same ads you are refering to - but I saw them closer to the launch of the Nexus 7 and not lately.

I own the current model and the pixel density is just about perfect. The only thing that would make sense is to bump it to 7.7" and increase the resolution to 1080p. The main issue will be striking a balance between battery life and the new size/weight and specs.

For those people wondering about the strange resolutions, the screen on the Nexus reserves 40 pixels to display the Back and Home buttons, which rotate along with the screen. So the current aspect ratio is 16:10 - 40 pixels. A 1080p 16:10 version would be about 1920 x 1150 (horizontally).

While they're at it how about they add an SD/MicroSD slot this time! Paying stupid high premiums for flash upgrades is one of the most aggravating things about the tablet market. On my phone a 32GB MicroSD card was $18 delivered but upgrading the Nexus 7 from 16 to 32GB costs $100, why?!?

I read that term a lot when it comes to Nexus devices. I've seen ads for Nexus on TV. I've seen ads in magazines liked Wired. There were ads for it *on the front of Google, the top 3 most visited page on the planet*. Every tech blog or general new site review article (NYT, etc) mentions the Nexus.

I'm really not sure how that qualifies as scarcely promoted.

I have no issue with the devices at all, I have a Galaxy Nexus, but it doesn't deserve to be painted as some sort of underdog.

Did you read any of the other words surrounding "Google scarcely promoted" or are those the only words in the article you read? If you simply read 4 more words you would understand that your statement is completely unfounded.

I'd love to see a 1920x1080 display with thicker bezels on the long edges and narrow ones on the short edges. This seems natural for reading long scrolling material, like a webpage, while in portrait mode. That is the most curious part to me of the iPad Mini design, the lack of a place to wrap a thumb over the edge in portrait mode.

I read that term a lot when it comes to Nexus devices. I've seen ads for Nexus on TV. I've seen ads in magazines liked Wired. There were ads for it *on the front of Google, the top 3 most visited page on the planet*. Every tech blog or general new site review article (NYT, etc) mentions the Nexus.

I'm really not sure how that qualifies as scarcely promoted.

I have no issue with the devices at all, I have a Galaxy Nexus, but it doesn't deserve to be painted as some sort of underdog.

The article really grasps at straws. The Nexus 7 is a 'success' as a baseline Android tablet in a 7" form factor. It is a complete failure as a mass market device, being outsold by even Samsung and B&N's devices, to say nothing of Amazon. It looks to me like Google is content to let others market Android tablets and much like phones they will simply release niche market baseline devices that appeal to the tech crowd.

Did you read any of the other words surrounding "Google scarcely promoted" or are those the only words in the article you read? If you simply read 4 more words you would understand that your statement is completely unfounded.

Yes I did. For something as promoted as the Nexus brand, specially since its stuck to Google, the brand is selling poorly. Android is kicking arse, Nexus not so much. Not even a million sales a month isn't very good compared to Kindle or iPad. I've seen more ads for Nexus then I have for the coloured Kindles, but according to any stat Kindle tablets are smoking Nexus 7 in sales. Of course we can't really tell since Amazon and Google refuse to give out numbers.

While they're at it how about they add an SD/MicroSD slot this time! Paying stupid high premiums for flash upgrades is one of the most aggravating things about the tablet market. On my phone a 32GB MicroSD card was $18 delivered but upgrading the Nexus 7 from 16 to 32GB costs $100, why?!?

$50, not $100. That being said, I do agree that it'd be nice to see some micro SD slots in Nexus devices...

The article really grasps at straws. The Nexus 7 is a 'success' as a baseline Android tablet in a 7" form factor. It is a complete failure as a mass market device, being outsold by even Samsung and B&N's devices, to say nothing of Amazon. It looks to me like Google is content to let others market Android tablets and much like phones they will simply release niche market baseline devices that appeal to the tech crowd.

That surprises me. The Nexus 7 is a fantastic device, and I know a few people who have bought them, in addition to the two my wife and I bought. I understand Samsung outselling the Nexus 7 with their wide variety of models, but it's hard to understand why people would prefer the Amazon and B&N devices.

Please, NO! My Nexus 7 is already retina-class as far as I am concerned, and I would rather put my GPU power to use for decent game framerates rather than just struggling to keep up with a boatload of unnecessary but politically correct pixels.

If they are going to put even a few more pennies into the design, put them into an HDMI connector and a microSD slot. Though I love my Nexus 7, I won't make the mistake again of buying a tablet without either one- take notice Google. Google can blather all they want about the horrifying, paralyzing difficulty of managing two different storage pools, but that drawback pales next to the huge pain of knowing that the device you recently bought has much of its memory space sucked up by the OS and you have to uninstall a game every time you want to install a new one. Games take multi-gigabytes each these days, and I like to keep my movies on local storage- streaming your own high-def movies to yourself while travelling is moronic.

Did you read any of the other words surrounding "Google scarcely promoted" or are those the only words in the article you read? If you simply read 4 more words you would understand that your statement is completely unfounded.

Yes I did. For something as promoted as the Nexus brand, specially since its stuck to Google, the brand is selling poorly. Android is kicking arse, Nexus not so much. Not even a million sales a month isn't very good compared to Kindle or iPad. I've seen more ads for Nexus then I have for the coloured Kindles, but according to any stat Kindle tablets are smoking Nexus 7 in sales. Of course we can't really tell since Amazon and Google refuse to give out numbers.

So far I'm only aware of the one, which from a statiscal view point is completely worthless and was only designed to grab headlines/ad revenue. Are there any others? I mean overall I see more Kindles in the wild then Nexus 7's, so it probably is true, but so far I haven't seen any stats at ALL that are even remotely reliable.

Is the subtitle supposed to read "Google will stick with Nexus"? Given the first sentence, it seems like you might have meant "Google will stick with Asus." It seems obvious that Google will stick with Nexus

I read that term a lot when it comes to Nexus devices. I've seen ads for Nexus on TV. I've seen ads in magazines liked Wired. There were ads for it *on the front of Google, the top 3 most visited page on the planet*. Every tech blog or general new site review article (NYT, etc) mentions the Nexus.

I'm really not sure how that qualifies as scarcely promoted.

I have no issue with the devices at all, I have a Galaxy Nexus, but it doesn't deserve to be painted as some sort of underdog.

Well - when they have rough estimates on figures like 3 million units in a quarter @ $200 while the iPad is selling at a rate of 22 million+ units per quarter at a higher price point -- based on the fact that ALL OF THIS is nothing more than speculation (the article included = read filler) then yeah it's scarce.

And Yes - I've seen many of the same ads you are refering to - but I saw them closer to the launch of the Nexus 7 and not lately.

I haven't seen a single advertisement anywhere in Europe. Most of the people here think that their only choice is an ipad or amazon tablet. Nexus? Most of them haven't even heard of that too. Every time I take out my GN they ask me what does the "Nexus" mean.

The article really grasps at straws. The Nexus 7 is a 'success' as a baseline Android tablet in a 7" form factor. It is a complete failure as a mass market device, being outsold by even Samsung and B&N's devices, to say nothing of Amazon. It looks to me like Google is content to let others market Android tablets and much like phones they will simply release niche market baseline devices that appeal to the tech crowd.

That surprises me. The Nexus 7 is a fantastic device, and I know a few people who have bought them, in addition to the two my wife and I bought. I understand Samsung outselling the Nexus 7 with their wide variety of models, but it's hard to understand why people would prefer the Amazon and B&N devices.

I agree that the Nexus 7 is a nice piece of hardware. But its basically equivilent to the FireHD, and Amazon adds a great content ecosystem. For a typical consumer, its a better value proposition, especially if they are already an Amazon customer.

This does not mean the Nexus line is bad, it just means that Google has no meaningful competition to Amazon's media empire of books, movies and music, plus the deep integration with shopping most users are already taking advantage of. In other words, Amazon has made a tablet based around what people actually want to *do* with the device, rather than simply take a good piece of hardware and say "Come get it".

The article really grasps at straws. The Nexus 7 is a 'success' as a baseline Android tablet in a 7" form factor. It is a complete failure as a mass market device, being outsold by even Samsung and B&N's devices, to say nothing of Amazon. It looks to me like Google is content to let others market Android tablets and much like phones they will simply release niche market baseline devices that appeal to the tech crowd.

That surprises me. The Nexus 7 is a fantastic device, and I know a few people who have bought them, in addition to the two my wife and I bought. I understand Samsung outselling the Nexus 7 with their wide variety of models, but it's hard to understand why people would prefer the Amazon and B&N devices.

I agree that its a fantastic device, but not nearly as easy to buy, in my experience, as a kindle or nook. Several times went all over town looking for one and while every store I visited had loads of nooks and fires, they either didn't have any Nexus 7s or were sold out and didn't even offer the lower end version.

Plus Amazon offers free shipping while Google play charges for shipping, and I'm betting a lot of people don't even know Google play sells hardware.

Anyway, I love my N7 and will probably end up buying this years model and handing down last years model to a family member. But I agree with the sentiment regarding better battery life rather than more pixels.

I read that term a lot when it comes to Nexus devices. I've seen ads for Nexus on TV. I've seen ads in magazines liked Wired. There were ads for it *on the front of Google, the top 3 most visited page on the planet*. Every tech blog or general new site review article (NYT, etc) mentions the Nexus.

I'm really not sure how that qualifies as scarcely promoted.

I have no issue with the devices at all, I have a Galaxy Nexus, but it doesn't deserve to be painted as some sort of underdog.

I think they mean that they scarcely promoted the display resolution, which is true. The display on the Nexus 7 is excellent but the specs were never mentioned in the commercials.

While they're at it how about they add an SD/MicroSD slot this time! Paying stupid high premiums for flash upgrades is one of the most aggravating things about the tablet market. On my phone a 32GB MicroSD card was $18 delivered but upgrading the Nexus 7 from 16 to 32GB costs $100, why?!?

It's $50 not $100, and the price of the Nexus is already being subsidized. The $50 markup for the larger amount of flash is definitely more than the flash costs, but it allows them to keep the price of the entry level 16 GB low and maybe make a tiny profit on the 32 GB. I definitely prefer devices with SD slots, but leaving it out makes the device a bit cheaper to manufacture, and even the $250 32 GB version is a bargain.